Cactus Beach Port Sinclair South Australia

When you google Cactus Beach you get all sorts of things, but mostly it tells you it's a surfers paradise, tourists aren't really that welcome & that you can't take photos of the place because they don't want it to get to popular. Great.... But we decided to check it out anyway. We turned off near the school at Penong following the Point Sinclair road. As we got down the track a bit we came across a forklift carrying a very large galvanised water tank on its forks, reversing at speed over the rough corrugations with the tank wobbling like crazy. As he was reversing away from us, he had no idea that we had come up behind him, as he tried to dodge the potholes we had no idea if he was going to turn off at any stage infront of us. We sat behind him for a good couple of minutes until we came across a straight stretch of road & floored it around him before something disastrous happened! We just looked at each other, an interesting start to our Cactus beach adventure.

About 20km in we came across the campground. At a first glance it was pretty empty, just one caravan, but as we went over a hill we saw it was actually pretty busy, about 12 other campsites were taken. The sites were spread out between & amongst dunes, cut into the side of the cliff sheltered from the winds from the beach. We found a spot that looked okay & set the trailer up. We then went for a wander to the beach & were confronted with yet another spectacular South Australian beach & coastline. There were a few surfers out catching the waves but the swell wasn't huge. It was a lovely spot. Just one very big downside. March flies!! They were terrible, there were plenty of bush flies too, but the March flies were a nightmare. No matter how much insect repellent we put on it didn't really help. 

The owner Ron comes around the campsites every night to collect the fees & clean the facilities. He was telling us that they had 4 inches of rain a month ago, the most they have ever had in one event. The insects & flies had gone crazy & he told us it was the worst the March flies had ever been, so glad we got to share that experience......

The only good thing about the flies was the cool little lizards they attracted. They soon learnt that humans kill flies & you can get an easy feed. We were killing flies & throwing them to the lizards, if you sat still long enough they would even run onto your feet grabbing live flies themselves, it did keep us entertained. 

The flies finally went away on dark & we had a bit of respite. The next day they were back with a vengeance though. During that day we checked out the whole beach, Mat went for a fish & I took some photos. We also took the couple of kilometer drive to Point LeHunte where there was a jetty. We went for a fish, mostly as there were no flies on the end of the jetty. We had the place to ourselves in a gorgeous little bay. This jetty also had a swimming enclosure in memory of an 11 year old taken by a great white shark in the 1970s. It had toilets & a BBQ area, again we were suprised to have it all to ourselves. 

Back to the camp & the flies & we decided we had probably seen as much as we could & the flies were driving us mad, so this would be our last night. We went up to the beach lookout to watch the sunset, but there were storms on the horizon, so we didn't get a sunset photo, but it think it was still a lovely colour. We even got a photo of the two of us, using the timer on the camera. 

The next morning we got up early to beat the flies while we packed up & said goodbye to Cactus beach. A lovely spot to visit. The owner has done a fantastic job with the facilities & there is flushing toilets scattered throughout the camp ground, there are also cold showers. The cost is $12.50 per night for adults & $5 for kids. Thanks Ron for letting us share your piece of paradise.